Prescription Drug Abuse in America

Prescription Drug Abuse in AmericaIllegal drugs in the United States have been a topic of discussion for as long as anyone can remember. For years we have been fighting a war against drugs and this paper will not reflect current trends of illegal drugs, but will show that the new problem these days in America is prescription drugs. According to state law enforcement officials, “An analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in Florida in 2007 found that three times as many people were killed by legal drugs as by cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines put together,” (David Gutierrez, 2008). Today, not only does society have to deal with the abuse of illegal drugs, but it must also witness people fall into the trap of prescription drug abuse. This can include family and close friends whose lives are literally thrown away. Most people who have had issues with addiction, jail, and can’t break the cycle seem to be drawn to these legal drugs. Some have witnessed the lives of people go from full to nothing and in some cases the abuse was so acute that it meant death. Findings point towards a trend that says volumes about this abuse of prescription drugs. “In 2007, cocaine was responsible for 843 deaths, heroin for 121, methamphetamines for 25 and marijuana for zero, for a total of 989 deaths. In contrast, 2,328 people were killed by opioid painkillers, including Vicodin and Oxycontin, and 743 were killed by drugs containing benzodiazepine …” (David Gutierrez, 2008). It is a serious problem in America and the people pushing these days are coming from our own pharmaceutical companies selling the newest crack. Except it is all legal, prescription drugs and it has found its way to the streets. To argue that the use and abuse of legal, prescription drugs is a much bigger problem than the use and abuse of illegal drugs, the researcher has gathered as many statistics and numbers that point towards proving the hypothesis. This will include focusing on secondary sources where some of the work has been done by prior research. It shows that illegal drug trafficking in the United States has always been an issue. Yet today it pales in comparison to the legal drug issue we have today due to prescription drugs like OxyContin and amphetamines like Adderall. Prescription drugs have permeated the suburban household more than anyone is seeing. Reviewing a prescription drug sheet from the Drug Enforcement Agency gives good insight into the underlying issue. Although the rates are from a 2009 survey, the numbers are still relevant today and show disturbing facts. Seven million Americans aged twelve and older abused prescription drugs for non-medical purposes, this number overtakes the first time use of marijuana. The numbers were up thirteen percent from the year before in 2008. The averages are astounding as to the number of people per day that are abusing prescription pain relievers for the first time. The number of emergency room visits for prescription drugs went up ninety-seven percent from 2004 to 2008. It has also been shown that the number of people seeking prescription drug treatment has risen 4 times over the past decade. Statistics also show that fifty-six percent of teenagers believe that prescription drugs are much easier to get than illegal drugs. The statistics showing that more and more people are acquiring prescription drugs legally. The responses from the children of people who are under care of prescription drugs concerning access to the drugs shows that the trafficking of these drugs is primarily through parents that are using or abusing the drugs via legal means of prescriptions from doctors. Michael Kress, a staff coordinator for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Office of Diversion Control says, “A huge problem is lack of knowledge about the dangers of prescription drug abuse …”, (Denice Thibodeau, October 20, 2009). The real issue is that the lack of knowledge the parents have towards this...

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...modern society is the abuise of drugs. Some use illegal "street" drugs that have no medical use while others abuseprescriptiondrugs for nonmedical purposes. Either way, it is dangerous can lead to serious consquences, including death. In my paper i will answer two main questions; Why and how are drugs available for the general public to use? What are the mental,physical,and financial consquences of abusing drugs(prescprition or "street")? My main source for answering these questions was the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) website. It is a federal angency that is responsible for enforcing the medical laws established by the justice department. This includes regulating laws regarding pharmacies, physcians, and drugs. Mr. Michael Martin, the manager of Walgreen's Pharmacy was also a credible source as he provided clear explanations if i had any questions. I chose these questions because these are two very important question because they not just impact the abuser but society as well. However, my focus in this paper will be the consquences because they are a serious threat.
Section 2: Summary
In order to understand the consquences of drugabuse, one must know why drugs are abused. There are many reasons for drugsabuse, "The reason for taking the...

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MKTG309: Social Marketing and Sustainability
Case Study 2: PrescriptionDrugAbuse
Name of Student: Shmaya Krinsky
Student Number: 43304117
Time of Tutorial: Tuesday 3pm
Due Date: 2nd May 2014
MKTG309: Case Study 2: PrescriptionDrugAbuse
digital content :
http://www.drugfreeworld.org/real-life-stories/prescription-drug-use.html
Prescriptiondrugs, the drug under the rug. There has become an increasing usage of prescriptiondrugs around the world, yet there seems to be very minimal awareness of this issue. People all around the world have been raised with anti drug campaigns and have been educated a great deal on the dangers of them. However there seems to be a mass ignorance about the growing problem and extreme dangers of using and abusing prescriptiondrugs. Throughout this paper, there will be a brief view into the growing problem of prescriptiondrugs diversion, which are the most used and abused, the tremendous dangers of abusing them, what has been done to combat the issue and what could be done to improve this epidemic.
There are various types of prescriptiondrugs that are being abused....

...﻿Krista Kelly
A Solution to PrescriptionDrugAbuse among Teenagers
The rising epidemic of prescriptiondrugabuse among adolescents must quickly be addressed. Abuse rates have sky rocketed over the past decade. A main reason this increase has occurred is because the amount of drugs being produced and available have increased. One solution is not going to complete deteriorate the problem, but with the help of society it can be reduced. A solution that has already been established in many states throughout the United States is a PrescriptionDrug Monitoring Program. In 2013 Astho defined PrescriptionDrug Monitoring Programs as “PDMP’s were created to improve patient care when controlled substances are prescribed and dispensed as well as to address prescriptiondrug diversion a nonmedical use and abuse of controlled pharmaceuticals.” A program such as this will help improve awareness and decrease the amount of drugs on the streets. Prescribers, pharmacies, and patients can all work together to ensure that prescriptiondrugs do not end up in the wrong hands.
A rise in the amount of prescriptiondrugs being produced and distributed is a large factor to the abuse problem....

...Why do Teenagers AbusePrescriptionDrugs in America?
What do we think when we know that the use of illicit drugs in America has been decreasing over the past decade? Should this be a bad thing or a good thing? Generally, people would think this is good and that our nation is certainly progressing as a whole. But to be honest, how is it possible to have this sort of decrease in a free will country such as America. The answer to this is the new era of drugs. Prescriptiondrugs are the reason why the use of illegal drugs such as marihuana, cocaine, heroin, crack and inhalants has decreased in the last decade. Teenagers are finding new ways to get high, unfortunately in a much more dangerous way and as addictive as illegal drugs. As a matter of a fact these drugs can contribute to lifetime health complications. Now, a question you may ask is why do teenagers abuseprescriptiondrugs in America? In this paper, the major reasons of why this is happening will be briefly discussed.
Although the abuse of prescriptiondrugs for nonmedical purposes has been a concern for past decades, the recent drastic increase of young adolescents in America abusing these types of drugs has...

...﻿PrescriptionDrugAbuse
Millions of people throughout the world are taking drugs on a daily basis. If you were to ask someone why they take prescriptiondrugs, most people would be taking them for the right reason. However, it’s estimated that twenty percent of people in the United States alone have used prescriptiondrugs for non-medical reasons.1 Prescriptiondrugabuse is a serious and growing problem that often goes unnoticed. Abusing these drugs can often lead to addiction and even death. You can develop an addiction to certain drugs that may include: narcotic painkillers, sedatives, tranquilizers, and stimulants.1 Prescriptiondrugs are the most common abused category of drugs, right next to marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and other dangerous drugs.3 The centers for Disease Control and Prevention have classified prescriptiondrugabuse as an epidemic.2 Addressing the prescriptiondrugabuse epidemic could help build stronger communities and allow those with substance abuse disorders to lead healthier, more satisfying lives.2
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...Cultivating a Solution for the Youth of AmericaPrescriptiondrugabuse has become an epidemic across the United States, destroying and affecting many lives of young Americans. Why do so many people abuseprescriptiondrugs? Many think that prescriptiondrugs are safer and less addictive than “street drugs.” After all, these are drugs that moms, dads, and even kid brothers and sisters use. The dangers are not easily seen, but the future of America’s youth will soon be in severe danger if the problem is not addressed. It will continue to get worse if action is not taken soon. Prescriptiondrugs are only safe for the individuals who actually have prescriptions for them because a doctor has examined these people and prescribed the right dose of medication for a specific medical condition. To fix the rapidly growing issue, I will propose to support programs aimed at preventing drugabuse, to educate parents as well as children about the risks of misusing medicine, and, finally, to enforce punishment for crimes associated with prescriptiondrug diversion.
Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) said about 2.3 million kids ages 12 to 17 took legal medications illegally...

...Prescriptiondrugabuse has become an epidemic in the United States especially among the youth of our country. The Partnership for a Drug Free America says that 2,500 teens a day abuseprescriptiondrugs. Abuse of these narcotics can lead to serious mental and physical consequences. Why is this such a problem, what can we do to solve it, and how is it affecting our social lives?
First we must explore what prescriptiondrugs are being abused. The most popular abused drugs fall into three categories. Depressants of the central nervous system typically used to anxiety or sleep disorders. Stimulant used to treat such disorders as ADHD and ADD and the most commonly abused are opiates used to treat pain. Opiates attach to receptors in the brain to block pain when abused they create euphoric feeling. When taken properly they are used to treat many different types of pain including pain in teeth, skeletal system, skin, internal organs of the body. When used in high doses opiates can also relieve pain cause with certain types of cancer. The most commonly abused opiates are Hydrocodone, Oxycotin, Fentanyl, and Morphine. These substances are taken snorted, smoked and sometimes even injected to give a high close to heroine. Heroine is made from the opiate plant so these pain killers are basically synthetic...

...Marc Boubelik
Engl 102 MWF 3:00pm
Yuan Ding
26 March 2012
Abuse of PrescriptionDrugs in the U.S.
"Prescriptiondrugs are the number-one drug problem that we face today," says David Rotenberg, executive director of the adolescent treatment center at the nonprofit Caron Foundation. "They are more widely prescribed, more widely available, and more widely abused by adolescents than they have ever been before."(DiConsiglio, 1) Abuse of prescriptiondrugs is one of the fastest growing problems for young adults in the U.S. today. It is a concerning problem because of prescription drug’s widespread availability and little known negative side effects. Prescriptiondrugs are being abused by many young adults and college students. This research paper will focus on the types of drugs abused, where these drugs are coming from and the reasons for abuse, and the dangers of unknown side effects of abuse.
Many different prescriptiondrugs are abused for academic purposes as well as recreational purposes. First let’s take a look at one of the most popular abused drugs, Adderall. Adderall is by definition a prescription stimulant. It is composed of dextroamphetamine and amphetamine. It is normally prescribed...